AI: Academic research and modern slavery

This experiment began as an attempt to see what would happen if I gave a brief to ChatGPT to write an essay on a given academic subject. I chose modern slavery as a topic that I was thinking about at the time, having discussed it with work colleagues recently. As it turned out, the request for a 2,000-word essay exceeded the character limit, presumably as a free-use registered version of the product. The result was, however, even more interesting, as the system generated what looked to me like a competent first attempt at an essay plan. Certainly it was a more comprehensive plan than I would have expected to be able to produce myself, without considerable pre-reading. The resulting plan is reproduced here verbatim for others to read and consider. I have commented at the end and may provide an evaluation at a later date. I would welcome comments from others.

The essay plan was generated on August 6, 2023 at around 23:00 (UTC+1) using a personal registration with default version GPT 3.5 (Aug 3 2023).

The full text string used to generate the essay plan was:

generate a 2000 word essay to postgraduate standard with footnotes and bibliography on the subject of modern slavery and the laws of England and Wales incorporating international law and regulation. What are the current political and social issues and what are the options for tackling this modern evil.

ChatGPT

As an AI language model, I can certainly help you write a comprehensive essay on the topic of modern slavery and the laws of England and Wales, incorporating international law and regulation. However, generating a 2000-word essay in one response would exceed the character limit. Instead, I'll provide an outline for the essay, covering the main sections and key points you should address. You can then expand on each section to reach the desired word count. Remember to cite relevant sources and include footnotes and a bibliography according to the citation style required by your postgraduate program.

Outline: Modern Slavery and the Laws of England and Wales

1. Introduction

• Definition and historical context of modern slavery
• The significance of the issue in contemporary society

2. Legal Framework: Modern Slavery Laws in England and Wales

• Overview of key legislative measures and landmark acts
• Analysis of the effectiveness and limitations of current laws

3. Incorporation of International Law and Regulation

• The role of international conventions and treaties in combatting modern slavery
• Assessing the impact of international cooperation on tackling the issue

4. Political and Social Issues Surrounding Modern Slavery

• Identifying factors that perpetuate modern slavery
• Analyzing the economic, social, and cultural drivers behind modern slavery

5. Challenges in Enforcement and Prosecution

• Obstacles faced by law enforcement agencies and prosecutors
• The role of private and public sectors in combating modern slavery

6. Protecting Victims and Ensuring Their Rights

• The importance of victim identification, support, and rehabilitation
• Assessing the effectiveness of victim-centered approaches

7. Corporate Responsibility and Supply Chain Transparency

• The role of businesses in preventing and addressing modern slavery
• Analyzing corporate policies and transparency in supply chains

8. Options for Tackling Modern Slavery: Policy and Legislative Reforms

• Recommendations for strengthening existing laws
• Proposals for implementing new policies to address modern slavery

9. International Collaboration and Best Practices

• The significance of cooperation between countries and organizations
• Learning from successful strategies in different jurisdictions

10. Conclusion

• Recapitulation of the key points and findings
• Emphasizing the need for a multi-faceted approach to combat modern slavery

Note: This outline provides a structured approach to writing your essay. You can elaborate on each section and include relevant case studies, statistics, and examples to support your arguments. Additionally, don't forget to include footnotes for your citations throughout the essay and compile a bibliography at the end with all the sources you have referenced. Make sure to adhere to the citation style required by your postgraduate program or institution (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago).

End of ChatGPT generated text

COMMENTARY

At first sight, the above essay plan would appear to be a good starting point for a piece of research and learning on the subject of modern slavery in a social and legal context from an English/Welsh and International Law perspective. I would suggest that this would make a better start to a piece of research than anything I could come up with in the absence of some considerable pre-reading.

The response also provided some useful additional advice, of a kind one might expect from a university professor supervising this kind of research project. As such, it demonstrates usefulness for the GPT product in academic research and learning.

I realise that this might cause concern in some circles but, on the other hand, when I approached my most recent academic research task (in around 2016/17) I was advised by my university (The Open University out of Milton Keynes UK) NOT to use Google for research purposes. It struck me as an absurd thing to say at the time, more so now that such tools as ChatGPT are available to assist researchers.

I ignored the advice and made good use of Google, Google Scholar, and other free-use online tools in my research. I also used university libraries, books I acquired through Amazon and Ebay, and advice kindly provided by prominent academics in the field of outer space law, many of whom I connected with through LinkedIn. I am happy to say that my research topic and resulting 2018 dissertation were awarded a distinction, leading to the award of an LL.M the following year. The title of my dissertation was "Law and Property Rights in Outer Space: Celestial Bodies and Natural Resources".

Of course more study needs to be made of this subject (use of AI in academic research) in order to reach a more comprehensive, informed and valid conclusion.

The outline provided above, as generated by GPT, suggests the next step in producing an essay on the given topic would be to start some preliminary reading followed by a more comprehensive literature review. On which basis, I asked ChatGPT to generate a literature review for me, based on the above outline. You can see the results here in part two.

• Read part two, generating a literarature review
• More articles about AI and content generation here

Ray Taylor

Kent, England, August 6, 2023

Thanks for reading